Collaborative Trajectory Options Program Within the NAS Flow Advisory Manager

摘要

This paper introduces the National Airspace System (NAS) Flow Advisory Manager (NFAM) and its use as a decision support tool spanning tactical and strategic horizons. NFAM is built on stochastic models of traffic and capacity evolution, which provides a unified approach to decision support for the most fundamental flow management issues: determining whether demand is known sufficiently accurately to apply flow restrictions. This issue arises in both tactical and strategic flow management. In tactical flow management, NFAM monitors capacity, demand, flows and restrictions in the NAS, recommending the issuance, amendment or removal of restrictions such as miles-in-trail (MIT) restrictions. In strategic flow management, NFAM forecasts capacity and demand, recommending strategic restrictions such as the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP). NFAM is able to recognize situations in which adequate certainty exists of the need to adjust flow management initiatives, as well as situations where the best course of action is to wait for more information. We illustrate how NFAM's ability to span tactical and strategic issues within one framework can avoid problems that have historically led to flow managers' reluctance to use efficient flow management techniques such as ICR and CTOP.